Handler, Eileen

ORAL HISTORY OF EILEEN HANDLER
Interviewed by Keith McDaniel
April 29, 2013
MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel, and today is April 29, 2013, and I am at the home of Eileen Handler here in Oak Ridge. Mrs. Handler, thank you for taking time to talk with us.
MRS. HANDLER: Well, thank you.
MR. MCDANIEL: Why don't you tell me where you were born and raised? Something about your family, and where you went to school.
MRS. HANDLER: My parents emigrated from Lithuania.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: They didn't know each other until they moved to the United States, and a family member introduced them. My mom came over in 1910. She was born in 1890. She was one of eight children. Six of them immigrated to the United States with the help of an uncle. My dad probably came a couple of years before her, and he was one of five children. My parents always had a grocery store, so we were always well-fed.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where? Where was it?
MRS. HANDLER: In the Bronx, New York.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: I was born in Manhattan, and when I was about two or three years old, the family moved to the Bronx, New York. In the East Bronx. And, lo and behold, I met some people that grew up a few blocks away from me, and I never knew them until I joined the Concord Yacht Club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: Right.
MR. MCDANIEL: Here in East Tennessee?
MRS. HANDLER: Correct.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: One that you probably know is Marvin Abraham.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm hmm, yes.
MRS. HANDLER: I had a crush on his brother in the second grade.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: How do you like that?
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow (laughs).
MRS. HANDLER: I am one of eight children. My eldest sister is going to be one hundred years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: She and I are the only living, out of the eight children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. And you are eighty-seven, is that correct?
MRS. HANDLER: I'm eighty-seven.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And we're all going to California this summer to celebrate her birthday.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you grew up in East Bronx?
MRS. HANDLER: In the East Bronx, and then the west.
MR. MCDANIEL: And you said your family had a grocery store. What was that like? I mean, at that time? So it's the early part of, you know, I guess the twenties or so?
MRS. HANDLER: I was born in 1926.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, OK, so it'd be...
MRS. HANDLER: It was around '29.
MR. MCDANIEL: You remember the thirties. You remember the Depression?
MRS. HANDLER: Barely.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sort of.
MRS. HANDLER: Barely.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm-hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: But I know we never had a lot of money. We always had food.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And my mother...I'm one of six sisters.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: My mother sewed all of our clothing. The girls' clothing. She worked in the store all day with my dad. She came home and cooked the meals, and she stayed up until two in the morning sewing.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: I didn't have my first store-bought dress until my elder sister Helene... and Lillian...went out to work. Each child had to work in the store before they, you know, they helped at the store.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And after high school, they did get jobs in Manhattan, and they could afford to buy us some clothes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: I just want to tell you about Helene's husband, Arthur Iberall. He was one of the scientists that invented the space suit.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now who, who is this? Who is Helene?
MRS. HANDLER: Helene is my eldest sister, the one who is going to be 100 years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Her husband was a scientist, a physicist, and he helped develop the first space suit.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: So that was interesting.
MR. MCDANIEL: That is interesting! So you grew up in New York...now where did you live?
MRS. HANDLER: I lived in the East Bronx.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was that a house?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, New York has apartment buildings.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: We always lived in apartment buildings. Except the last...some of the houses were two-family homes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: But we always rented. We rented, and we slept four girls in a bedroom.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: Two in a bed. And today, children...each has to have their own bedroom.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs) Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Not in those days...not when you had eight children.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Sometimes it was a two bedroom apartment.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And sometimes it was two bedrooms, one bath. For ten people! One bath.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And I went to elementary school there. I went to high school, I went to an all-girls high school in the West Bronx. Our family had moved to the West Bronx, and I graduated from Walton in 1944.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And then the war was on...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: I was admitted to the City College of New York.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And I majored in accounting.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And Spanish...which I don't remember a word.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: Well, I remember a few words.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: But the accounting has come in very handy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Because in every organization that I joined, I was always the treasurer first, and then the president!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: Or the leader.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, to this day...
MR. MCDANIEL: To this day.
MRS. HANDLER: I am very involved.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you went to college...and you finished college? Did you?
MRS. HANDLER: I didn't finish college because...the Handlers had lived in New York, in the Bronx, when I was five years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And they moved to Washington, D.C., when we were eight years old. My mom said that Dick used to carry my books home from school for me.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: I can't remember that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So the Handlers were family friends?
MRS. HANDLER: They were family friends. Our sisters were best girlfriends. Helene and his sister. Two of my sisters moved to Washington, D.C., Helene was one of them, and while visiting her one time, I said, "Gee, you know, the last time I was here, you said we would contact the Handlers but we didn't, so let's do it this time."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I hadn't seen them in twelve years.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: So, we picked up the telephone, and lo and behold, my husband Richard was at home. Normally, he's not at home because he's a sailor, and he was always...his mother and he made the sails for his canoe.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: And he was always on the Potomac River. It just happened it was a rainy day, and he was home, and he came right over.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And three days later, he proposed!
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right!
MRS. HANDLER: Right! So...
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, how old were you? You were...22?
MRS. HANDLER: We were twenty. We were twenty at that time.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, so you all were the same age? OK.
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah, he was five months older.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: So, I didn't think we would get married until after he finished college. Which, I worked my way through...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: ...so that he could go to college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where was he going to college?
MRS. HANDLER: University of Maryland.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: He used to hitchhike to school, from Washington. But eventually, I think he got a car.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Bicycle, car, whatever. They were like a ten-minute drive away from where they lived in northwest Washington.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm-hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: So I like I said, I wouldn't...oh. I thought we would wait until after college, and then we would get married.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Because my mother always wanted me to marry a college graduate.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But he asked me to go on a trip with him. A sailing trip. Well, he was going to be racing. Racing shells?
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: It was going to be in upstate New York and he wanted me to go with him, and I said, "My parents wouldn't let me go with a man unless I was married!"
MR. MCDANIEL: Right!
MRS. HANDLER: So, we got married ten months later, and a week later we went to the regatta!
MR. MCDANIEL: Really.
MRS. HANDLER: You should know, that in our families, because of Dick, we are sailing enthusiasts and we love to race.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, alright.
MRS. HANDLER: And Dick and a professor from the University of Tennessee approached the university about getting some boats and starting a sail club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: A sailing club. So my husband initiated that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And that was the beginning of UT's sailing club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: And since they bought a couple of...the university bought a couple of boats, and some members lent their boats to the students...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: My daughter Kathy was the first president.
MR. MCDANIEL: Let's go back, and we'll get to that in a minute. Let's go back - so you two got married, and then...
MRS. HANDLER: We got married and we moved to Washington...
MR. MCDANIEL: Moved to Washington. Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: We had to live with his parents, because we couldn't afford our own place until a few years later.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And while I was home, well, I started to work right away.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Dick was going on the G.I. Bill, which was like $105 a month.
MR. MCDANIEL: And he had, so, he had been in the service.
MRS. HANDLER: Correct.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He had been in the service twice.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: His senior year, and that's why City College allowed women.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, right...
MRS. HANDLER: Because it was all male before that.
MR. MCDANIEL: All the men were gone.
MRS. HANDLER: They were gone.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So they let us women in.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. But he'd been in the service.
MRS. HANDLER: He had been in the service, and he was out of the service when I met him, again.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And then in his senior year of college, they drafted him, because he was in the Reserves.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he had already left for the day, I mean, he had left to go to camp.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And I get a phone call from him, because he asked for a stay. He wanted to finish college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And then he would go in.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: So what they did is, he left, kissed goodbye, and he was off to Kentucky or someplace, but he called me and said, "My appeal was granted."
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: "I'm coming home!"
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: So my employer at that time said, "You can have the rest of the day off."
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, well that's good.
MRS. HANDLER: That was nice.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. HANDLER: But before that, we had a baby.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: My mother-in-law thought it would be nice to have a baby in the house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Okay, so I gave her a baby...but we couldn't afford to live!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, Mama went to work, and I was working in the Accounting Department of a building materials store, and that's where I got a lot of training there. To this day, I'm using all that knowledge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I mean, my husband let me keep the books, and the checking account, and all that stuff.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, did he finish college and then did he have to go in the service?
MRS. HANDLER: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But we were lucky, he was only an hour away, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; we were living in Washington.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And then, they only kept him for nine months.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, by then, by this time the war was over anyway.
MRS. HANDLER: This was the Korean War, I'm sorry.
MR. MCDANIEL: This was the Korean War?
MRS. HANDLER: I'm sorry, this was the Korean War.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: This was 1951, I believe.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: And so that was the Korean War.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did he study in college?
MRS. HANDLER: Engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Engineering.
MRS. HANDLER: Civil engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And when he got out of the service the second time, we moved up to Pennsylvania.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: We were living in a brand new city! Levittown, Pennsylvania.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And he worked in Philadelphia, that office. He worked for Factory Mutual Engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: A division of a big insurance company.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And got a lot of his training. After that he decided to work for the, I think it was the Department of the Navy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: In New York. And he used to commute from Levittown, and they carpooled from the railroad station and they went to New York every day.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: But at least he was home nights. At his first job, in Philadelphia, he was on the road nine months of the year.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And would only spend three months in Philadelphia.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, he was all over the country. The eastern part. Writing reports, so we never got to see him. We got to Levittown, we had another baby, our son James. Our children are very sports minded, and of course Dick's love of sailing...oh! As soon as we moved to Oak Ridge, he had to have a sailboat!
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, let's talk about that. And how did you get to Oak Ridge? When did you come here?
MRS. HANDLER: Came here in 1963.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, sixty-three.
MRS. HANDLER: Sixty-three.
MR. MCDANIEL: How did that happen? How did that come about?
MRS. HANDLER: We lived in a small town, of about 600 people. By the time we left, it was a thousand. My husband had a part-time job in real estate. He worked forty hours on real estate and forty hours on his job!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he just loved being with people, and I do, too.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And doing for people. That town was a small town. The children were not geared to a higher education, to go off to college. And we wanted more for our children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, this opportunity came, for the Atomic Energy Commission.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: He's not a lab person. (chuckles)
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He was a government employee.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: He was in the fire protection and industrial safety department.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: After a few years, he was promoted to the chief of the department.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But I just want to tell you also, the reason...of course, he wanted to better himself…
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and be advanced, so he took the job, but he was interested in being near a college town.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And since he had found out that the Oak Ridge schools were excellent.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and were close to UT, he decided...
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, did he take a job with the AEC before he came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: No.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, so he came here to take the job to work for the Atomic Energy Commission.
MRS. HANDLER: Right. But he worked, I think, for the Department of the Army in Illinois...
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, I see.
MRS. HANDLER: The place we moved from.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: Rock Island, Illinois.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: He was having to get this job...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And every place we moved, we rented first, and then we built or bought a house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: So let me tell you, eight moves in fifteen years!
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles) That's a lot!
MRS. HANDLER: That's a lot!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, all our children went to the University of Tennessee.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, when you got here...and what year was it did you say you came to Tennessee?
MRS. HANDLER: 1963.
MR. MCDANIEL: 1963. Now tell me, tell me about your children. How many did you have, and how old were they?
MRS. HANDLER: We had four children, they were the ages between four and fourteen.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. So they came right in, and got immersed into the school system? And where did you all live when you first came here?
MRS. HANDLER: When we first came here, we lived in the apartments...
MR. MCDANIEL: The Garden Apartments, they called them?
MRS. HANDLER: No, over on the other side. Past Downtown, right past Downtown.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, I understand.
MRS. HANDLER: The street is no longer there. It was called Prairie Lane, and when they expanded Downtown, the mall...not the mall, the Downtown area shopping center...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and I wish they had kept the shopping center.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, of course...everybody does!
MRS. HANDLER: And so that street is no longer there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But the four children went to the University of Tennessee.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay...
MRS. HANDLER: Now Katherine, the eldest...
MR. MCDANIEL: Let's talk about your time here in Oak Ridge, when they were kids, when they were going to school. So your husband had a job with AEC...
MRS. HANDLER: Which later became the Department of Energy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, exactly. And you had these four children. Now, did you go to work? Or did you just decide to...
MRS. HANDLER: I was a homemaker...
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And I was a valued volunteer...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: ...for several organizations.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now let's talk about the kids for a second, and their involvement in the school, the community, and their activities. What all were they into?
MRS. HANDLER: Sports. The youngest, or the couple of youngest were into sports. Basketball, and volleyball, and whatever.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: But you see, the minute we...not the minute, a few months after we moved to Oak Ridge, my husband went out and bought a sailboat.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, okay, I see.
MRS. HANDLER: And he came home and said, "I have a family sailboat." Well, a fifteen foot sailboat will only hold two people. I said, "Dick, we're six people!"
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right (chuckles).
MRS. HANDLER: Kathy was his first crew.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Kathy ended up being the first president of the U.T. sailing club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, okay.
MRS. HANDLER: So...
MR. MCDANIEL: So that's what he did with the kids. He taught them to sail.
MRS. HANDLER: He taught them to sail, and Mama brought the dinner out every Sunday. (chuckles)
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where did he go? Where'd you go?
MRS. HANDLER: The Concord Yacht Club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Ok, Concord Yacht Club.
MRS. HANDLER: Concord Yacht Club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Now, then Kathy went off to college, and Jim...well, actually...no, yeah, she was sailing with him.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And then she went off to college, and then he used Jim. They were four and a half years difference in age.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I'm of the Jewish faith, and our children, as they had their bar and bat mitzvahs, their gifts were a sailboat.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: Each kid got their own sailboat!
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And they all liked to race.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And they all...well, not all. Two of the four, the two boys, are still sailing.
MR. MCDANIEL: Still sailing.
MRS. HANDLER: Still sailing.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, so...
MRS. HANDLER: Competitively.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, they were involved in the normal things that kids are involved in, in the community. School, and recreation...
MRS. HANDLER: Recreation.
MR. MCDANIEL: ...things such as that.
MRS. HANDLER: Scouts.
MR. MCDANIEL: Scouts, you know. Now, did any of them do the theater, the Playhouse, or were in the band at school?
MRS. HANDLER: Yes. Ok, Jo Ann was in the Robertsville Junior High School band, oh and then to high school in the high school too. She was a trumpet player.
MR. MCDANIEL: Alright.
MRS. HANDLER: Jim learned the clarinet, but he never did anything with it, and then we gave the clarinet to John, who was younger. And we never knew it - John did not like the clarinet. He would have preferred the saxophone!
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: I said, "Well John, why didn't you say something?"
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: You know, he had this hand-me-down!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: John, at the age of sixteen, drove himself to Nashville to win the state 16-year-old, and 17-year-old, bicycling championship.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: It was the state.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And then he tried out for the Nationals, up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but his foot...his legs cramped on him.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, wow.
MRS. HANDLER: So he did not finish that race.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow. Well, so they were in school, they were active, your husband was working, sailing, he was taking them out on the lake, they were sailing. And you said you were involved in a lot of volunteer activities. Tell me a little bit about those years, while the kids were at home. What were you doing?
MRS. HANDLER: Okay, when we started out, I was with the Sisterhood of the Jewish Congregation, and I held every office in the Sisterhood, and President several times...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and several years each since.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Somewhere along the line, I got involved with Reading America. It was a TV (local channels) program, TV program, some friends of mine, and we used to read to the preschoolers...
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really?
MRS. HANDLER: ...read on the TV, on one of the channels.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Then being involved in the Sisterhood opened up other areas, avenues...needing different people. And one lady said to me, "Why don't you help us read...teach children how to read?”
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And ever since then...it's been at least twelve or fifteen years, that I have volunteered - I still do - at Willow Brook, and the teachers always have some children who have a little problem, and I usually take the kindergartners.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Teach them their ABCs, and to read and to count.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I got my husband involved in that program, got some friends involved in that program, even as long as last year!
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: You know, so, I always tell people it's so important. There are so many activities in Oak Ridge for people to do, you know. There are over 400 organizations, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, absolutely.
MRS. HANDLER: And what I'm best known for, besides that, the other thing I'm best known for, when we came to Oak Ridge, our Sisterhood was having a food fair.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And I, a month later, I had baked six banana breads, and six months later, I was the chairman of the food fair. For forty-five years!
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: Forty five years! Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: So what did the food fair do?
MRS. HANDLER: The food fair had a threefold function. It was a fund-raiser,
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: It was a way for our women to work together to get to know each other. That's how we got to know each other. And for the community, the community looked forward to it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Lots of good food, and community fellowship, and...
MRS. HANDLER: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: ...people that normally wouldn't be involved in the Jewish community, would! You'd get to know...
MRS. HANDLER: Right, we even had some of our friends who were not Jewish help us cook.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And did a lot of baking. The Secretary of the congregation is still getting phone calls, "When is the next food fair?"
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: They want that food fair! Well, about five years ago, I had to retire. I couldn't stand on my feet that long anymore.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs) You fixed your last banana-nut loaf, didn't you?
MRS. HANDLER: No, I got far away from that! I have my chocolate intrigue cakes and sour cream coffee cakes!
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, wow.
MRS. HANDLER: Blintzes and potato knishes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure...
MRS. HANDLER: And we had committees...
MR. MCDANIEL: So, they just stopped doing the food fair?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, I asked for two people to co-chair with each other, no one stepped up. But you know, there's a new young couple in our congregation, and he's interested in doing it for the congregation.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, there you go.
MRS. HANDLER: So maybe it'll happen.
MR. MCDANIEL: Maybe it will.
MRS. HANDLER: I just sent them all my notes (giggles).
MR. MCDANIEL: What other activities? I know you said you're involved in the Sisterhood, and the reading program, and the food fair...
MRS. HANDLER: Okay...
MR. MCDANIEL: Other organizations.
MRS. HANDLER: I help out the ORCMA Guild with the Rock To Bach. We do that every year.
MR. MCDANIEL: Which is fairly new; that's a kind of a new project.
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah, yeah. And it was a good fund-raiser for them.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And then of course, the Guild, you know...they're no longer there, but they do help ORCMA put on the Rock To Bach, so we have the manpower.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, sure. Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And I only play a small part, but you know every single part, you know, is a part of the whole.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Absolutely, absolutely.
MRS. HANDLER: And that takes a lot of people.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Another thing I'm doing is, um...
MR. MCDANIEL: What are some of the things you've done in the past? Is there anything that you can mention, other than the things you've mentioned already? That you, other organizations that you're involved in?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, there were area organizations...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Wherever I lived, you know there was always some organization and it was not a Jewish organization...it was a whole group of women getting together; a women's club or something.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I'm sure we did things for the immediate local area.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: My husband and I always, we never talked about it, but we always got involved in volunteer work and helping.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he...let me see if I left anything out on the...Oh! I've been leader (laughs) of TOPS. Take Off Pounds Sensibly.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: We're trying to help each other lose weight, or at least maintain.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Because I said, "If I didn't belong, I could put on five pounds a year!" And somebody else said, "I could put on five pounds a month!"
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: So, it's a support group, and we are there for each other...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And we welcome newcomers, or people who can join in, and we have an exchange program.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm-hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: So I finally decided it was time to retire...
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: ...from that position, and we just had an installation, so I'm co-leader. So I still have my finger in there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And we just...and you meet so many nice people.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And every place, wherever I go, it's always family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right!
MRS. HANDLER: You know, even in the exercise class, in Charlotte's class, you know...I've been there for forty years. So it's a big family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure it is!
MRS. HANDLER: And I'm her helper, so my accounting, my bookkeeping experiences...you know, helps that way.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: We each have our own thing. My husband, one of the many things that he was involved in was CASA - Court Appointed Special Advocates.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He was fighting hard to get a mother and child together. The child was in an institution.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And my husband got so disappointed that he dropped it, but he looked after the family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: He clothed them, gave them money for a down payment on a house, on a mobile home, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And he'd pick up prescriptions for people; he was always shelling out money. He was a great guy. He was a great guy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. HANDLER: And then when he gave up CASA, he became an ombudsman for patients in the nursing home, that's through the Office on Aging. Their local office is in Knoxville.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he did that until he died.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah. We were married almost sixty years when he passed away.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really. Now when did he retire?
MRS. HANDLER: He retired as soon as the kids got out of college!
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: He said, "I'm retiring next year!" He was fifty-seven years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really? Fifty-seven?
MRS. HANDLER: But he did consulting work. He had his hand in...and he traveled the country. Hanford, and all the other plants. Inspections were his forte, and, you know, go by the book...what has to be done, and keep it clean, and all that stuff. So, he made a lot of friends also. In fact, one of my friends from the congregation says to me, "Dick died two days before Christmas and it wasn't even announced in the paper before the funeral, and at Martin's funeral home the line went out the door. That's how many people heard about it and loved him."
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So they showed up for that. That was interesting.
MR. MCDANIEL: I bet.
MRS. HANDLER: This is an aging community. But there are younger people moving in, and which we're happy to say now. Like I always said, Oak Ridge is the best place to live. It's the best place to raise your children. It's the best place to retire and be active.
MR. MCDANIEL: Why is it? Why? Tell me why you think those things.
MRS. HANDLER: Because, the people that we've met, that we've interacted with, an acceptance. And whatever sports the kids are into, bicycling...they've met other people and there are things of interest. They've had many friends. When we moved here, the whole street was lined up with children. They were all boys! Jo Ann was aged seven or eight or nine...and there were no girls on the street, only boys! I said, "Wait until you're older...you'll appreciate it then! You'll appreciate them."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: There are so many activities that you can be involved in. It doesn't even cost money, it just takes time. And even if it costs money, you give what you can.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MRS. HANDLER: And it's a healthy environment, and so many activities for the children - swimming, sports...you know...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. And now like you said, it's a graying community. Now it seems to be a good place to grow old, isn't it?
MRS. HANDLER: Definitely! I don't want to leave Oak Ridge, my friends don't want to leave Oak Ridge. Our kids are saying, "Come live near us..." Maybe someday we have to. But as long as we're able...and like I say, you know, exercise and food intake are the important things.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: And be active. And be concerned...be a concerned citizen.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I think we have a lot of that in Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you ever get involved in politics or political subjects?
MRS. HANDLER: No, politics are not my forte.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: (laughs) I used to help out at Playhouse, when I first came here. When I first came here, my first assignment, I'm telling you...I hadn't gone to many plays during my married life, or when I was a teenager, and I really got into the thick of it here. They said, "Don't worry, someone will help you!" I mean, it was these Nazi German uniforms, you know? One was Tom, I don't remember his last name. He was very active in the Playhouse years ago.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that when Paul Ebert was the director?
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And our Sisterhood used to put plays on at the synagogue.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah. Ann Diamond, Marshall Lockhart.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Right, Marshall.
MRS. HANDLER: Every year they took turns directing a play. And it usually has some Jewish element in it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: The Playhouse didn't have to worry about us!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, exactly!
MRS. HANDLER: (laughs) No competition! No competition! No, no...
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: But sometimes the actors from the Playhouse were in our plays.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And we held them at the synagogue until the last year we did them - it's got to be like thirty years ago.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I think we used Jefferson Junior High one time. Maybe the Playhouse once.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Now when did your husband pass away?
MRS. HANDLER: In 2006.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. So, not too long ago.
MRS. HANDLER: No.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: No. He also was very interested in people starting businesses, and loaned a young man some money, which he paid back. Two Israeli students who wanted to go to college here. We lent them money and they paid it back.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: His interest was in young people getting ahead, and entrepreneurs getting ahead, and if he could, you know... There's an organization in Knoxville, I don't know if there's one in Oak Ridge, where they help start, like venture capitalism or something.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Venture capital. So, I think that's where he got his taste of it. And then he saw it in our children. Kathy went on to get her business education degree at UT. Jim was industrial management. Kathy lives in Florida, Jim lives near Nashville. Then John got his MBA at Harvard, but before that he went to South Africa for three years.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: He applied for a Masters and they said, go out and live life a little and decide what you want to do.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He's self-employed, and his wife has a restaurant in Chicago.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And they all have children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So there's children, there's grandchildren, there's great-grandchildren... Jo Ann got her degree in Physical Education...she was the jock.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did the kids, what did they think about growing up in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: They loved it!
MR. MCDANIEL: Did they?
MRS. HANDLER: They loved it!
MR. MCDANIEL: Good opportunities, a good place to grow up.
MRS. HANDLER: Right. It's a good place to grow up. I think sometimes, you say, well, what activities, there's something lacking, to keep the kids off the street or something. I remember in New York, playing ping pong you know, every weekend, and dancing, stuff like that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: I would think that each congregation has to make their own way.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. But I would imagine somebody who's my age, or thereabouts, growing up in Oak Ridge, it was a good place to be prepared for life. It was a good place to be prepared for leaving, wasn't it?
MRS. HANDLER: You're right!
MR. MCDANIEL: They got a good preparation for leaving, and growing up, and...
MRS. HANDLER: The enthusiasm...well, the school system was so good, you know! It encouraged them! It encouraged that...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: For our children to go out on their own. And Jo Ann, who was this jock, she decided she liked being with people. And she went into real estate, and she was working for a couple of years for a couple of different companies, and she found out she was doing all the work, and she started her own business!
MR. MCDANIEL: There you go!
MRS. HANDLER: She and her husband have their own business. And she's the chief!
MR. MCDANIEL: Of course!
MRS. HANDLER: It was her idea, and he works for her. They work together.
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly. Right.
MRS. HANDLER: They work together, and they've got three kids in college right now. One's in medical school.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where are they?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, Jo Ann's in Grand Junction, Colorado, the west end. The daughter who is in medical school is near Denver. And her son is in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, and their youngest daughter is just finishing her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: So they're well on their way.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, what else do you want to tell me about your life, here in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: I don't know if we've covered everything...(Shuffles papers) Well, the thing that I like for seniors is the ORICL system - Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning. They have three sessions per year, and each session has like, 40 or 50 subjects!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And you pick and choose what's good for you. Sometimes they conflict with my exercise class...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right (laughs).
MRS. HANDLER: Or my TOPS group, which meets only once a week, but it's an ongoing education, and I think that's what this town is about, and I remember the days that you didn't lock your door, you didn't lock your car, and the kids were let out to play in the streets, and I just hope that the world is going to be a better place and they can do that again. Because it's scary now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yep.
MRS. HANDLER: You know, I remember babysitting for my granddaughter when they lived in California, and then, you know, I was there for a few days and I would take the child for a stroll, and then before I knew about it, I'm hearing that someone kidnapped a blonde and blue eyed, and my granddaughter was blonde and blue eyed, and I'll tell you, it scared me! I don't want that responsibility!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, exactly.
MRS. HANDLER: It just scares you.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So I just hope that things...
MR. MCDANIEL: But it was a different time then.
MRS. HANDLER: It was.
MR. MCDANIEL: When your kids were young, you know, so...
MRS. HANDLER: My great-granddaughter had to prepare a speech. Can you imagine an eight-year-old speaking for fifteen minutes?
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I wouldn't do this when I was fifty!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure! Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And she interviewed me. She had to interview somebody who knew someone who came through Ellis Island.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, okay. Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, her great-great-grandparents did. She interviewed me, and she dressed up as Eileen when she gave that speech!
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: She was wearing the white midi blouse that I mentioned to her mother, that we had to wear.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: My great-granddaughter asked if we had to wear a uniform. I said no, but I remember...it just jostled my memory, and I said one day a week, we did the Pledge of Allegiance in the assembly.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And we wore our white midi blouses, our navy blue skirts, and a red tie!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I hadn't even thought of that in seventy years...you know, over eighty years! And then they videoed her, and she was dressed and presented herself as Eileen, whose parents had come through.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And her father said, "You can only have notecards, you can't have a script."
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And she pulled it off.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well that's great.
MRS. HANDLER: So that was good.
MR. MCDANIEL: Anything else that you want to talk about, in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: In Oak Ridge...well, our kids did come back...our grandkids came back to go to sailing camp.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And, so, and we talked...you know, lots of people learned about the sailing camp, or sailing, through my husband.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. So he was kind of the sailing guru around here, wasn't he?
MRS. HANDLER: Yes he was. (laughs)
MR. MCDANIEL: So as you said, he helped start the sailing program at UT.
MRS. HANDLER: He did. And when we sailed in the Bahamas, he skippered the boats. One year, we went out with some Oak Ridgers and some people from Knoxville. They had two boatloads of people that they had chartered, and at the last minute one of the guys that was supposed to skipper it couldn't, so they asked my husband and me to come along. So there we were with these twenty-year-olds...twenty and thirty-year-olds...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: Some of them are lawyers in Clinton. So, that was an experience. One time, one of the guys gave his girl her engagement ring down there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: So that was good.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, good.
MRS. HANDLER: But in Oak Ridge, I like to see the growing businesses. Sometimes I think we're getting too many restaurants. I remember the mall having too many shoe stores and jewelry stores...
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs) Right.
MRS. HANDLER: You have to get the right combination.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Each new one takes away from the other.
MR. MCDANIEL: I bet you loved the old shopping center, didn't you?
MRS. HANDLER: Oh yeah, yeah. If they'd asked me then, I'd have said, "Leave it the way it is!"
MR. MCDANIEL: Leave it the way it is.
MRS. HANDLER: But now we know, in hindsight.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now we know...yes we do. Right.
MRS. HANDLER: What are we going to do? So let's hope that they are going to do something with it...so we have that to look forward to.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Hope so.
MRS. HANDLER: We can always hope for a brighter day and we've got the sunshine out.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And we like the weather here...the weather can't be beat, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Maybe this week, we got a lot of rain, but we need the rain, too.
MR. MCDANIEL: All right, well thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us, and telling us a little bit about your life and your family.
MRS. HANDLER: Thank you so much.
[End of Interview]

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ORAL HISTORY OF EILEEN HANDLER
Interviewed by Keith McDaniel
April 29, 2013
MR. MCDANIEL: This is Keith McDaniel, and today is April 29, 2013, and I am at the home of Eileen Handler here in Oak Ridge. Mrs. Handler, thank you for taking time to talk with us.
MRS. HANDLER: Well, thank you.
MR. MCDANIEL: Why don't you tell me where you were born and raised? Something about your family, and where you went to school.
MRS. HANDLER: My parents emigrated from Lithuania.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: They didn't know each other until they moved to the United States, and a family member introduced them. My mom came over in 1910. She was born in 1890. She was one of eight children. Six of them immigrated to the United States with the help of an uncle. My dad probably came a couple of years before her, and he was one of five children. My parents always had a grocery store, so we were always well-fed.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where? Where was it?
MRS. HANDLER: In the Bronx, New York.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: I was born in Manhattan, and when I was about two or three years old, the family moved to the Bronx, New York. In the East Bronx. And, lo and behold, I met some people that grew up a few blocks away from me, and I never knew them until I joined the Concord Yacht Club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: Right.
MR. MCDANIEL: Here in East Tennessee?
MRS. HANDLER: Correct.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: One that you probably know is Marvin Abraham.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm hmm, yes.
MRS. HANDLER: I had a crush on his brother in the second grade.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: How do you like that?
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow (laughs).
MRS. HANDLER: I am one of eight children. My eldest sister is going to be one hundred years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: She and I are the only living, out of the eight children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. And you are eighty-seven, is that correct?
MRS. HANDLER: I'm eighty-seven.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And we're all going to California this summer to celebrate her birthday.
MR. MCDANIEL: So you grew up in East Bronx?
MRS. HANDLER: In the East Bronx, and then the west.
MR. MCDANIEL: And you said your family had a grocery store. What was that like? I mean, at that time? So it's the early part of, you know, I guess the twenties or so?
MRS. HANDLER: I was born in 1926.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, OK, so it'd be...
MRS. HANDLER: It was around '29.
MR. MCDANIEL: You remember the thirties. You remember the Depression?
MRS. HANDLER: Barely.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sort of.
MRS. HANDLER: Barely.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm-hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: But I know we never had a lot of money. We always had food.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And my mother...I'm one of six sisters.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: My mother sewed all of our clothing. The girls' clothing. She worked in the store all day with my dad. She came home and cooked the meals, and she stayed up until two in the morning sewing.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: I didn't have my first store-bought dress until my elder sister Helene... and Lillian...went out to work. Each child had to work in the store before they, you know, they helped at the store.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And after high school, they did get jobs in Manhattan, and they could afford to buy us some clothes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: I just want to tell you about Helene's husband, Arthur Iberall. He was one of the scientists that invented the space suit.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now who, who is this? Who is Helene?
MRS. HANDLER: Helene is my eldest sister, the one who is going to be 100 years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Her husband was a scientist, a physicist, and he helped develop the first space suit.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: So that was interesting.
MR. MCDANIEL: That is interesting! So you grew up in New York...now where did you live?
MRS. HANDLER: I lived in the East Bronx.
MR. MCDANIEL: Was that a house?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, New York has apartment buildings.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: We always lived in apartment buildings. Except the last...some of the houses were two-family homes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: But we always rented. We rented, and we slept four girls in a bedroom.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: Two in a bed. And today, children...each has to have their own bedroom.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs) Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Not in those days...not when you had eight children.
MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Sometimes it was a two bedroom apartment.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And sometimes it was two bedrooms, one bath. For ten people! One bath.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And I went to elementary school there. I went to high school, I went to an all-girls high school in the West Bronx. Our family had moved to the West Bronx, and I graduated from Walton in 1944.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And then the war was on...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: I was admitted to the City College of New York.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And I majored in accounting.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And Spanish...which I don't remember a word.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: Well, I remember a few words.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: But the accounting has come in very handy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Because in every organization that I joined, I was always the treasurer first, and then the president!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: Or the leader.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, to this day...
MR. MCDANIEL: To this day.
MRS. HANDLER: I am very involved.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, you went to college...and you finished college? Did you?
MRS. HANDLER: I didn't finish college because...the Handlers had lived in New York, in the Bronx, when I was five years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And they moved to Washington, D.C., when we were eight years old. My mom said that Dick used to carry my books home from school for me.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: I can't remember that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So the Handlers were family friends?
MRS. HANDLER: They were family friends. Our sisters were best girlfriends. Helene and his sister. Two of my sisters moved to Washington, D.C., Helene was one of them, and while visiting her one time, I said, "Gee, you know, the last time I was here, you said we would contact the Handlers but we didn't, so let's do it this time."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I hadn't seen them in twelve years.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: So, we picked up the telephone, and lo and behold, my husband Richard was at home. Normally, he's not at home because he's a sailor, and he was always...his mother and he made the sails for his canoe.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: And he was always on the Potomac River. It just happened it was a rainy day, and he was home, and he came right over.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And three days later, he proposed!
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right!
MRS. HANDLER: Right! So...
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, how old were you? You were...22?
MRS. HANDLER: We were twenty. We were twenty at that time.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, so you all were the same age? OK.
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah, he was five months older.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: So, I didn't think we would get married until after he finished college. Which, I worked my way through...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: ...so that he could go to college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where was he going to college?
MRS. HANDLER: University of Maryland.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: He used to hitchhike to school, from Washington. But eventually, I think he got a car.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Bicycle, car, whatever. They were like a ten-minute drive away from where they lived in northwest Washington.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm-hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: So I like I said, I wouldn't...oh. I thought we would wait until after college, and then we would get married.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Because my mother always wanted me to marry a college graduate.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But he asked me to go on a trip with him. A sailing trip. Well, he was going to be racing. Racing shells?
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: It was going to be in upstate New York and he wanted me to go with him, and I said, "My parents wouldn't let me go with a man unless I was married!"
MR. MCDANIEL: Right!
MRS. HANDLER: So, we got married ten months later, and a week later we went to the regatta!
MR. MCDANIEL: Really.
MRS. HANDLER: You should know, that in our families, because of Dick, we are sailing enthusiasts and we love to race.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, alright.
MRS. HANDLER: And Dick and a professor from the University of Tennessee approached the university about getting some boats and starting a sail club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: A sailing club. So my husband initiated that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And that was the beginning of UT's sailing club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh really?
MRS. HANDLER: And since they bought a couple of...the university bought a couple of boats, and some members lent their boats to the students...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: My daughter Kathy was the first president.
MR. MCDANIEL: Let's go back, and we'll get to that in a minute. Let's go back - so you two got married, and then...
MRS. HANDLER: We got married and we moved to Washington...
MR. MCDANIEL: Moved to Washington. Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: We had to live with his parents, because we couldn't afford our own place until a few years later.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And while I was home, well, I started to work right away.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Dick was going on the G.I. Bill, which was like $105 a month.
MR. MCDANIEL: And he had, so, he had been in the service.
MRS. HANDLER: Correct.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He had been in the service twice.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: His senior year, and that's why City College allowed women.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, right...
MRS. HANDLER: Because it was all male before that.
MR. MCDANIEL: All the men were gone.
MRS. HANDLER: They were gone.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So they let us women in.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right. But he'd been in the service.
MRS. HANDLER: He had been in the service, and he was out of the service when I met him, again.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And then in his senior year of college, they drafted him, because he was in the Reserves.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he had already left for the day, I mean, he had left to go to camp.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And I get a phone call from him, because he asked for a stay. He wanted to finish college.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And then he would go in.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: So what they did is, he left, kissed goodbye, and he was off to Kentucky or someplace, but he called me and said, "My appeal was granted."
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: "I'm coming home!"
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: So my employer at that time said, "You can have the rest of the day off."
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, well that's good.
MRS. HANDLER: That was nice.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. HANDLER: But before that, we had a baby.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: My mother-in-law thought it would be nice to have a baby in the house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Okay, so I gave her a baby...but we couldn't afford to live!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, Mama went to work, and I was working in the Accounting Department of a building materials store, and that's where I got a lot of training there. To this day, I'm using all that knowledge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I mean, my husband let me keep the books, and the checking account, and all that stuff.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, did he finish college and then did he have to go in the service?
MRS. HANDLER: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But we were lucky, he was only an hour away, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; we were living in Washington.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And then, they only kept him for nine months.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, by then, by this time the war was over anyway.
MRS. HANDLER: This was the Korean War, I'm sorry.
MR. MCDANIEL: This was the Korean War?
MRS. HANDLER: I'm sorry, this was the Korean War.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: This was 1951, I believe.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: And so that was the Korean War.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did he study in college?
MRS. HANDLER: Engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Engineering.
MRS. HANDLER: Civil engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And when he got out of the service the second time, we moved up to Pennsylvania.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: We were living in a brand new city! Levittown, Pennsylvania.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And he worked in Philadelphia, that office. He worked for Factory Mutual Engineering.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: A division of a big insurance company.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And got a lot of his training. After that he decided to work for the, I think it was the Department of the Navy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: In New York. And he used to commute from Levittown, and they carpooled from the railroad station and they went to New York every day.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: But at least he was home nights. At his first job, in Philadelphia, he was on the road nine months of the year.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And would only spend three months in Philadelphia.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, he was all over the country. The eastern part. Writing reports, so we never got to see him. We got to Levittown, we had another baby, our son James. Our children are very sports minded, and of course Dick's love of sailing...oh! As soon as we moved to Oak Ridge, he had to have a sailboat!
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, let's talk about that. And how did you get to Oak Ridge? When did you come here?
MRS. HANDLER: Came here in 1963.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, sixty-three.
MRS. HANDLER: Sixty-three.
MR. MCDANIEL: How did that happen? How did that come about?
MRS. HANDLER: We lived in a small town, of about 600 people. By the time we left, it was a thousand. My husband had a part-time job in real estate. He worked forty hours on real estate and forty hours on his job!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he just loved being with people, and I do, too.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And doing for people. That town was a small town. The children were not geared to a higher education, to go off to college. And we wanted more for our children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, this opportunity came, for the Atomic Energy Commission.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: He's not a lab person. (chuckles)
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He was a government employee.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: He was in the fire protection and industrial safety department.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: After a few years, he was promoted to the chief of the department.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But I just want to tell you also, the reason...of course, he wanted to better himself…
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and be advanced, so he took the job, but he was interested in being near a college town.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And since he had found out that the Oak Ridge schools were excellent.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and were close to UT, he decided...
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, did he take a job with the AEC before he came to Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: No.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay, so he came here to take the job to work for the Atomic Energy Commission.
MRS. HANDLER: Right. But he worked, I think, for the Department of the Army in Illinois...
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, I see.
MRS. HANDLER: The place we moved from.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: Rock Island, Illinois.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: He was having to get this job...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And every place we moved, we rented first, and then we built or bought a house.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: So let me tell you, eight moves in fifteen years!
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles) That's a lot!
MRS. HANDLER: That's a lot!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, all our children went to the University of Tennessee.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, when you got here...and what year was it did you say you came to Tennessee?
MRS. HANDLER: 1963.
MR. MCDANIEL: 1963. Now tell me, tell me about your children. How many did you have, and how old were they?
MRS. HANDLER: We had four children, they were the ages between four and fourteen.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. So they came right in, and got immersed into the school system? And where did you all live when you first came here?
MRS. HANDLER: When we first came here, we lived in the apartments...
MR. MCDANIEL: The Garden Apartments, they called them?
MRS. HANDLER: No, over on the other side. Past Downtown, right past Downtown.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, I understand.
MRS. HANDLER: The street is no longer there. It was called Prairie Lane, and when they expanded Downtown, the mall...not the mall, the Downtown area shopping center...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and I wish they had kept the shopping center.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, of course...everybody does!
MRS. HANDLER: And so that street is no longer there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: But the four children went to the University of Tennessee.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay...
MRS. HANDLER: Now Katherine, the eldest...
MR. MCDANIEL: Let's talk about your time here in Oak Ridge, when they were kids, when they were going to school. So your husband had a job with AEC...
MRS. HANDLER: Which later became the Department of Energy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, exactly. And you had these four children. Now, did you go to work? Or did you just decide to...
MRS. HANDLER: I was a homemaker...
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And I was a valued volunteer...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: ...for several organizations.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now let's talk about the kids for a second, and their involvement in the school, the community, and their activities. What all were they into?
MRS. HANDLER: Sports. The youngest, or the couple of youngest were into sports. Basketball, and volleyball, and whatever.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: But you see, the minute we...not the minute, a few months after we moved to Oak Ridge, my husband went out and bought a sailboat.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, okay, I see.
MRS. HANDLER: And he came home and said, "I have a family sailboat." Well, a fifteen foot sailboat will only hold two people. I said, "Dick, we're six people!"
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right (chuckles).
MRS. HANDLER: Kathy was his first crew.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Kathy ended up being the first president of the U.T. sailing club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, okay.
MRS. HANDLER: So...
MR. MCDANIEL: So that's what he did with the kids. He taught them to sail.
MRS. HANDLER: He taught them to sail, and Mama brought the dinner out every Sunday. (chuckles)
MR. MCDANIEL: Now, where did he go? Where'd you go?
MRS. HANDLER: The Concord Yacht Club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Ok, Concord Yacht Club.
MRS. HANDLER: Concord Yacht Club.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Now, then Kathy went off to college, and Jim...well, actually...no, yeah, she was sailing with him.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And then she went off to college, and then he used Jim. They were four and a half years difference in age.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I'm of the Jewish faith, and our children, as they had their bar and bat mitzvahs, their gifts were a sailboat.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right? Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: Each kid got their own sailboat!
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And they all liked to race.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And they all...well, not all. Two of the four, the two boys, are still sailing.
MR. MCDANIEL: Still sailing.
MRS. HANDLER: Still sailing.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, so...
MRS. HANDLER: Competitively.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, they were involved in the normal things that kids are involved in, in the community. School, and recreation...
MRS. HANDLER: Recreation.
MR. MCDANIEL: ...things such as that.
MRS. HANDLER: Scouts.
MR. MCDANIEL: Scouts, you know. Now, did any of them do the theater, the Playhouse, or were in the band at school?
MRS. HANDLER: Yes. Ok, Jo Ann was in the Robertsville Junior High School band, oh and then to high school in the high school too. She was a trumpet player.
MR. MCDANIEL: Alright.
MRS. HANDLER: Jim learned the clarinet, but he never did anything with it, and then we gave the clarinet to John, who was younger. And we never knew it - John did not like the clarinet. He would have preferred the saxophone!
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: I said, "Well John, why didn't you say something?"
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: You know, he had this hand-me-down!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: John, at the age of sixteen, drove himself to Nashville to win the state 16-year-old, and 17-year-old, bicycling championship.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: It was the state.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And then he tried out for the Nationals, up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but his foot...his legs cramped on him.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, wow.
MRS. HANDLER: So he did not finish that race.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow. Well, so they were in school, they were active, your husband was working, sailing, he was taking them out on the lake, they were sailing. And you said you were involved in a lot of volunteer activities. Tell me a little bit about those years, while the kids were at home. What were you doing?
MRS. HANDLER: Okay, when we started out, I was with the Sisterhood of the Jewish Congregation, and I held every office in the Sisterhood, and President several times...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: ...and several years each since.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Somewhere along the line, I got involved with Reading America. It was a TV (local channels) program, TV program, some friends of mine, and we used to read to the preschoolers...
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, really?
MRS. HANDLER: ...read on the TV, on one of the channels.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Then being involved in the Sisterhood opened up other areas, avenues...needing different people. And one lady said to me, "Why don't you help us read...teach children how to read?”
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And ever since then...it's been at least twelve or fifteen years, that I have volunteered - I still do - at Willow Brook, and the teachers always have some children who have a little problem, and I usually take the kindergartners.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: Teach them their ABCs, and to read and to count.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I got my husband involved in that program, got some friends involved in that program, even as long as last year!
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: You know, so, I always tell people it's so important. There are so many activities in Oak Ridge for people to do, you know. There are over 400 organizations, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, absolutely.
MRS. HANDLER: And what I'm best known for, besides that, the other thing I'm best known for, when we came to Oak Ridge, our Sisterhood was having a food fair.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And I, a month later, I had baked six banana breads, and six months later, I was the chairman of the food fair. For forty-five years!
MR. MCDANIEL: (chuckles)
MRS. HANDLER: Forty five years! Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: So what did the food fair do?
MRS. HANDLER: The food fair had a threefold function. It was a fund-raiser,
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: It was a way for our women to work together to get to know each other. That's how we got to know each other. And for the community, the community looked forward to it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Lots of good food, and community fellowship, and...
MRS. HANDLER: Yes.
MR. MCDANIEL: ...people that normally wouldn't be involved in the Jewish community, would! You'd get to know...
MRS. HANDLER: Right, we even had some of our friends who were not Jewish help us cook.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And did a lot of baking. The Secretary of the congregation is still getting phone calls, "When is the next food fair?"
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: They want that food fair! Well, about five years ago, I had to retire. I couldn't stand on my feet that long anymore.
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs) You fixed your last banana-nut loaf, didn't you?
MRS. HANDLER: No, I got far away from that! I have my chocolate intrigue cakes and sour cream coffee cakes!
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, wow.
MRS. HANDLER: Blintzes and potato knishes.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure...
MRS. HANDLER: And we had committees...
MR. MCDANIEL: So, they just stopped doing the food fair?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, I asked for two people to co-chair with each other, no one stepped up. But you know, there's a new young couple in our congregation, and he's interested in doing it for the congregation.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, there you go.
MRS. HANDLER: So maybe it'll happen.
MR. MCDANIEL: Maybe it will.
MRS. HANDLER: I just sent them all my notes (giggles).
MR. MCDANIEL: What other activities? I know you said you're involved in the Sisterhood, and the reading program, and the food fair...
MRS. HANDLER: Okay...
MR. MCDANIEL: Other organizations.
MRS. HANDLER: I help out the ORCMA Guild with the Rock To Bach. We do that every year.
MR. MCDANIEL: Which is fairly new; that's a kind of a new project.
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah, yeah. And it was a good fund-raiser for them.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And then of course, the Guild, you know...they're no longer there, but they do help ORCMA put on the Rock To Bach, so we have the manpower.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, sure. Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And I only play a small part, but you know every single part, you know, is a part of the whole.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Absolutely, absolutely.
MRS. HANDLER: And that takes a lot of people.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Another thing I'm doing is, um...
MR. MCDANIEL: What are some of the things you've done in the past? Is there anything that you can mention, other than the things you've mentioned already? That you, other organizations that you're involved in?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, there were area organizations...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Wherever I lived, you know there was always some organization and it was not a Jewish organization...it was a whole group of women getting together; a women's club or something.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I'm sure we did things for the immediate local area.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: My husband and I always, we never talked about it, but we always got involved in volunteer work and helping.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he...let me see if I left anything out on the...Oh! I've been leader (laughs) of TOPS. Take Off Pounds Sensibly.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: We're trying to help each other lose weight, or at least maintain.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Because I said, "If I didn't belong, I could put on five pounds a year!" And somebody else said, "I could put on five pounds a month!"
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: So, it's a support group, and we are there for each other...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And we welcome newcomers, or people who can join in, and we have an exchange program.
MR. MCDANIEL: Mm-hmm.
MRS. HANDLER: So I finally decided it was time to retire...
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: ...from that position, and we just had an installation, so I'm co-leader. So I still have my finger in there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And we just...and you meet so many nice people.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And every place, wherever I go, it's always family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right!
MRS. HANDLER: You know, even in the exercise class, in Charlotte's class, you know...I've been there for forty years. So it's a big family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure it is!
MRS. HANDLER: And I'm her helper, so my accounting, my bookkeeping experiences...you know, helps that way.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: We each have our own thing. My husband, one of the many things that he was involved in was CASA - Court Appointed Special Advocates.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He was fighting hard to get a mother and child together. The child was in an institution.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And my husband got so disappointed that he dropped it, but he looked after the family.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: He clothed them, gave them money for a down payment on a house, on a mobile home, you know?
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And he'd pick up prescriptions for people; he was always shelling out money. He was a great guy. He was a great guy.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah.
MRS. HANDLER: And then when he gave up CASA, he became an ombudsman for patients in the nursing home, that's through the Office on Aging. Their local office is in Knoxville.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And he did that until he died.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah. We were married almost sixty years when he passed away.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really. Now when did he retire?
MRS. HANDLER: He retired as soon as the kids got out of college!
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: He said, "I'm retiring next year!" He was fifty-seven years old.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really? Fifty-seven?
MRS. HANDLER: But he did consulting work. He had his hand in...and he traveled the country. Hanford, and all the other plants. Inspections were his forte, and, you know, go by the book...what has to be done, and keep it clean, and all that stuff. So, he made a lot of friends also. In fact, one of my friends from the congregation says to me, "Dick died two days before Christmas and it wasn't even announced in the paper before the funeral, and at Martin's funeral home the line went out the door. That's how many people heard about it and loved him."
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So they showed up for that. That was interesting.
MR. MCDANIEL: I bet.
MRS. HANDLER: This is an aging community. But there are younger people moving in, and which we're happy to say now. Like I always said, Oak Ridge is the best place to live. It's the best place to raise your children. It's the best place to retire and be active.
MR. MCDANIEL: Why is it? Why? Tell me why you think those things.
MRS. HANDLER: Because, the people that we've met, that we've interacted with, an acceptance. And whatever sports the kids are into, bicycling...they've met other people and there are things of interest. They've had many friends. When we moved here, the whole street was lined up with children. They were all boys! Jo Ann was aged seven or eight or nine...and there were no girls on the street, only boys! I said, "Wait until you're older...you'll appreciate it then! You'll appreciate them."
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: There are so many activities that you can be involved in. It doesn't even cost money, it just takes time. And even if it costs money, you give what you can.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, exactly.
MRS. HANDLER: And it's a healthy environment, and so many activities for the children - swimming, sports...you know...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. And now like you said, it's a graying community. Now it seems to be a good place to grow old, isn't it?
MRS. HANDLER: Definitely! I don't want to leave Oak Ridge, my friends don't want to leave Oak Ridge. Our kids are saying, "Come live near us..." Maybe someday we have to. But as long as we're able...and like I say, you know, exercise and food intake are the important things.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: And be active. And be concerned...be a concerned citizen.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I think we have a lot of that in Oak Ridge.
MR. MCDANIEL: Did you ever get involved in politics or political subjects?
MRS. HANDLER: No, politics are not my forte.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: (laughs) I used to help out at Playhouse, when I first came here. When I first came here, my first assignment, I'm telling you...I hadn't gone to many plays during my married life, or when I was a teenager, and I really got into the thick of it here. They said, "Don't worry, someone will help you!" I mean, it was these Nazi German uniforms, you know? One was Tom, I don't remember his last name. He was very active in the Playhouse years ago.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that when Paul Ebert was the director?
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And our Sisterhood used to put plays on at the synagogue.
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: Yeah. Ann Diamond, Marshall Lockhart.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Right, Marshall.
MRS. HANDLER: Every year they took turns directing a play. And it usually has some Jewish element in it.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: The Playhouse didn't have to worry about us!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, exactly!
MRS. HANDLER: (laughs) No competition! No competition! No, no...
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs)
MRS. HANDLER: But sometimes the actors from the Playhouse were in our plays.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And we held them at the synagogue until the last year we did them - it's got to be like thirty years ago.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I think we used Jefferson Junior High one time. Maybe the Playhouse once.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. Now when did your husband pass away?
MRS. HANDLER: In 2006.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay. So, not too long ago.
MRS. HANDLER: No.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: No. He also was very interested in people starting businesses, and loaned a young man some money, which he paid back. Two Israeli students who wanted to go to college here. We lent them money and they paid it back.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: His interest was in young people getting ahead, and entrepreneurs getting ahead, and if he could, you know... There's an organization in Knoxville, I don't know if there's one in Oak Ridge, where they help start, like venture capitalism or something.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Venture capital. So, I think that's where he got his taste of it. And then he saw it in our children. Kathy went on to get her business education degree at UT. Jim was industrial management. Kathy lives in Florida, Jim lives near Nashville. Then John got his MBA at Harvard, but before that he went to South Africa for three years.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: He applied for a Masters and they said, go out and live life a little and decide what you want to do.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: He's self-employed, and his wife has a restaurant in Chicago.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And they all have children.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So there's children, there's grandchildren, there's great-grandchildren... Jo Ann got her degree in Physical Education...she was the jock.
MR. MCDANIEL: What did the kids, what did they think about growing up in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: They loved it!
MR. MCDANIEL: Did they?
MRS. HANDLER: They loved it!
MR. MCDANIEL: Good opportunities, a good place to grow up.
MRS. HANDLER: Right. It's a good place to grow up. I think sometimes, you say, well, what activities, there's something lacking, to keep the kids off the street or something. I remember in New York, playing ping pong you know, every weekend, and dancing, stuff like that.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: I would think that each congregation has to make their own way.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right. But I would imagine somebody who's my age, or thereabouts, growing up in Oak Ridge, it was a good place to be prepared for life. It was a good place to be prepared for leaving, wasn't it?
MRS. HANDLER: You're right!
MR. MCDANIEL: They got a good preparation for leaving, and growing up, and...
MRS. HANDLER: The enthusiasm...well, the school system was so good, you know! It encouraged them! It encouraged that...
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: For our children to go out on their own. And Jo Ann, who was this jock, she decided she liked being with people. And she went into real estate, and she was working for a couple of years for a couple of different companies, and she found out she was doing all the work, and she started her own business!
MR. MCDANIEL: There you go!
MRS. HANDLER: She and her husband have their own business. And she's the chief!
MR. MCDANIEL: Of course!
MRS. HANDLER: It was her idea, and he works for her. They work together.
MR. MCDANIEL: Exactly. Right.
MRS. HANDLER: They work together, and they've got three kids in college right now. One's in medical school.
MR. MCDANIEL: Where are they?
MRS. HANDLER: Well, Jo Ann's in Grand Junction, Colorado, the west end. The daughter who is in medical school is near Denver. And her son is in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, and their youngest daughter is just finishing her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: So they're well on their way.
MR. MCDANIEL: So, what else do you want to tell me about your life, here in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: I don't know if we've covered everything...(Shuffles papers) Well, the thing that I like for seniors is the ORICL system - Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning. They have three sessions per year, and each session has like, 40 or 50 subjects!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And you pick and choose what's good for you. Sometimes they conflict with my exercise class...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right (laughs).
MRS. HANDLER: Or my TOPS group, which meets only once a week, but it's an ongoing education, and I think that's what this town is about, and I remember the days that you didn't lock your door, you didn't lock your car, and the kids were let out to play in the streets, and I just hope that the world is going to be a better place and they can do that again. Because it's scary now.
MR. MCDANIEL: Yep.
MRS. HANDLER: You know, I remember babysitting for my granddaughter when they lived in California, and then, you know, I was there for a few days and I would take the child for a stroll, and then before I knew about it, I'm hearing that someone kidnapped a blonde and blue eyed, and my granddaughter was blonde and blue eyed, and I'll tell you, it scared me! I don't want that responsibility!
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right, exactly.
MRS. HANDLER: It just scares you.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So I just hope that things...
MR. MCDANIEL: But it was a different time then.
MRS. HANDLER: It was.
MR. MCDANIEL: When your kids were young, you know, so...
MRS. HANDLER: My great-granddaughter had to prepare a speech. Can you imagine an eight-year-old speaking for fifteen minutes?
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: I wouldn't do this when I was fifty!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure! Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And she interviewed me. She had to interview somebody who knew someone who came through Ellis Island.
MR. MCDANIEL: Oh, okay. Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: So, her great-great-grandparents did. She interviewed me, and she dressed up as Eileen when she gave that speech!
MR. MCDANIEL: Really?
MRS. HANDLER: She was wearing the white midi blouse that I mentioned to her mother, that we had to wear.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: My great-granddaughter asked if we had to wear a uniform. I said no, but I remember...it just jostled my memory, and I said one day a week, we did the Pledge of Allegiance in the assembly.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And we wore our white midi blouses, our navy blue skirts, and a red tie!
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And I hadn't even thought of that in seventy years...you know, over eighty years! And then they videoed her, and she was dressed and presented herself as Eileen, whose parents had come through.
MR. MCDANIEL: Wow.
MRS. HANDLER: And her father said, "You can only have notecards, you can't have a script."
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: And she pulled it off.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well that's great.
MRS. HANDLER: So that was good.
MR. MCDANIEL: Anything else that you want to talk about, in Oak Ridge?
MRS. HANDLER: In Oak Ridge...well, our kids did come back...our grandkids came back to go to sailing camp.
MR. MCDANIEL: Okay.
MRS. HANDLER: And, so, and we talked...you know, lots of people learned about the sailing camp, or sailing, through my husband.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure. So he was kind of the sailing guru around here, wasn't he?
MRS. HANDLER: Yes he was. (laughs)
MR. MCDANIEL: So as you said, he helped start the sailing program at UT.
MRS. HANDLER: He did. And when we sailed in the Bahamas, he skippered the boats. One year, we went out with some Oak Ridgers and some people from Knoxville. They had two boatloads of people that they had chartered, and at the last minute one of the guys that was supposed to skipper it couldn't, so they asked my husband and me to come along. So there we were with these twenty-year-olds...twenty and thirty-year-olds...
MR. MCDANIEL: Right, right.
MRS. HANDLER: Some of them are lawyers in Clinton. So, that was an experience. One time, one of the guys gave his girl her engagement ring down there.
MR. MCDANIEL: Is that right?
MRS. HANDLER: So that was good.
MR. MCDANIEL: Well, good.
MRS. HANDLER: But in Oak Ridge, I like to see the growing businesses. Sometimes I think we're getting too many restaurants. I remember the mall having too many shoe stores and jewelry stores...
MR. MCDANIEL: (laughs) Right.
MRS. HANDLER: You have to get the right combination.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, sure.
MRS. HANDLER: Each new one takes away from the other.
MR. MCDANIEL: I bet you loved the old shopping center, didn't you?
MRS. HANDLER: Oh yeah, yeah. If they'd asked me then, I'd have said, "Leave it the way it is!"
MR. MCDANIEL: Leave it the way it is.
MRS. HANDLER: But now we know, in hindsight.
MR. MCDANIEL: Now we know...yes we do. Right.
MRS. HANDLER: What are we going to do? So let's hope that they are going to do something with it...so we have that to look forward to.
MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Hope so.
MRS. HANDLER: We can always hope for a brighter day and we've got the sunshine out.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: And we like the weather here...the weather can't be beat, you know.
MR. MCDANIEL: Right.
MRS. HANDLER: Maybe this week, we got a lot of rain, but we need the rain, too.
MR. MCDANIEL: All right, well thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us, and telling us a little bit about your life and your family.
MRS. HANDLER: Thank you so much.
[End of Interview]